Sheldon J. Plankton
Squidward Tentacles Sheldon "Peter" James Plankton is a fictional character on the American television cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Krabs' arch nemesis and originally the main antagonist in the SpongeBob SquarePants'' series. He was the main antagonist in the movie, "The Great Patty Caper", "SpongeBob's Last Stand", "Truth or Square", "Atlantis SquarePantis", and "Frozen Face Off" and a protagonist villain in episodes he leads/really focusing to him and a non-villain in episodes when he wasn't portrayed as an antagonist/villain.'' Additionally, he has been featured on countless toys, games, dolls, and other popular merchandise items. He operates a struggling restaurant called the Chum Bucket, located directly across the street from the Krusty Krab. His primary goal in the series is to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and put Mr. Krabs out of business. Plankton succeeds at stealing the recipe in the movie, but his goal of world domination is thwarted by SpongeBob. In "Friend or Foe," it was revealed that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were once best friends, but a dispute over the Krabby Patty recipe ended their friendship. BiographyEdit Plankton has spent a long period of time trying to destroy the Krusty Krab, a franchise owned and operated by Mr. Krabs. He's married to a computer named Karen. He always comes short of getting the Krabby Patty formula. Early life and careerEdit Plankton's best friend from birth was his future rival Mr. Krabs. This history was revealed in "Friend or Foe". Plankton and Krabs were considered outcasts by other kids because Krabs was poor and Plankton was a nerd. When they discovered that money could bring them out of their poverty, they decided to make money selling hamburger patties, and set up a mini-restaurant in the local dump. At first, their burgers weren't successful; the first of their patties was tried by Old Man Jenkins, who was knocked out by the contaminated burger. Plankton started complaining about how Jenkins had been old and not able to handle the patty. Offended by this, Krabs tried to take the recipe from Plankton to improve upon. Plankton wanted to do this himself, but he only ended up with the corner of the recipe, which read: "And a pinch of chum." Plankton stormed out of the restaurant, and went to create his own recipe, using only his memory, the corner of the recipe, and science. At school, Plankton tried to sell his chum burgers in a chum bucket and failed, when Krabs succeeded with his Krabby Patties, which he had created by accident when Plankton had slammed the door. Ingredients fell in the patty batter, thus creating the patty. Plankton later named his restaurant the Chum Bucket, after the secret ingredient of the original unsuccessful patty recipe. Mr. Krabs named his restaurant the Krusty Krab. To this very day, Plankton has been single-mindedly obsessed with obtaining the Krabby Patty formula and running the Krusty Krab out of business, often going to incredible and often ridiculous lengths to do so; in "SpongeBob's Last Stand," for example, he builds a massive highway that goes straight through Jellyfish Fields and over the Krusty Krab, leading right to his restaurant simply to do so. In "Dunces and Dragons", it was implied that the fight between Plankton and Krabs began centuries ago when Plankton's evil overlord ancestor Planktonamor was vanquished by a Krabby Patty. Since there's not any feud between Krabs and Plankton in their early childhood, it's possible that these families settled their differences until the childhoods of Krabs and Plankton. In a comic story, Krabs and Plankton are shown to have been college roommates. Their rivalry is shown to have been caused by a series of things, including Plankton being stepped on by Mr. Krabs (which didn't annoy him at all), being closed inside Mr. Krabs' book (which aggravated him a little), and Mr. Krabs going out with his date and Plankton's date (which started their rivalry). Since it was revealed in "Friend or Foe" that they were rivals earlier than college, this story is likely non-canon. Even in the present day of the series, Krabs and Plankton are occasionally shown to somewhat get along, such as in "New Leaf" and "Best Frenemies". Plankton's restaurant, the Chum Bucket, has always been extremely unsuccessful, not only because of competition from the Krusty Krab and Plankton's rude and cruel treatment of the people in Bikini Bottom, but also due to the extremely poor quality of the food and Plankton's constant failure to clean the place up. As its name implies, the Chum Bucket serves chum-based foods, all of which taste terrible. In "Plankton's Regular", the Krusty Krab adds chum to its menu in an attempt to steal Plankton's single regular customer (who was in reality being paid by Karen to eat at the Chum Bucket and pretend to like the food there). The customer is disgusted by their chum, and says that it is the second foulest thing he has ever tasted (it can be inferred that Plankton's chum is the number one worst). This implies that chum is inherently disgusting, and cannot be made to taste good, although is shown to be false in the Season 7 episode "Greasy Buffoons." Plankton used excess grease from the Krusty Krab's grease trap that was dumped near the Chum Bucket to make his sales skyrocket (although it is unknown if this made the chum taste good, as Plankton could have been lying, and his customers could have been tasting only the grease, as the flavor could have covered up the chum's flavor). It should be noted that in real life, chum is made of grounded up fish parts that are inedible to humans, such as heads and guts, and is used as bait for sharks and similar creatures. This would mean that Plankton is killing fish (or at least collecting dead fish) and serving their remains to other fish. This has only ever been touched upon in "The Krabby Kronicle," where SpongeBob prints a story claiming this. However, SpongeBob was being tricked by Mr. Krabs into printing absurd lies to appeal to customers, and this story was supposedly false. It also possible, that in the alternate reality the show takes place in, chum might be made of something completely different (although still likely disgusting), like in the episode Spongicus, Plankton named of many weird things that make up his chum, and fish parts was not on the list. Plankton has no regular employees, and runs the Chum Bucket entirely by himself, although he spends most of his time in his laboratory, due to having no customers. Plankton actually runs the restaurant only when he has potential customers. Also, when he does have customers, he also uses artificially intelligent machines to cover the other positions. Although it has been stated on multiple occasions that Plankton has never had a single customer, he has on several occasions had brief success, particularly in more recent episodes, such as "Spongicus" and "Chum Caverns". A fan once wrote to Stephen Hillenberg, questioning that, due to Plankton being a genius in the fields of robotics, inventions, and technology (including many other fields), why Plankton dosn't sell computers and the like instead of fast food (which would actually probably bring him much better success)? Hillenberg answered this with that Plankton has never gone this route, simply due to him having never thought of it before, and also due to the fact that Plankton is slightly incompetent, and also that he has terrible communication skills, he would probably ignore the person's idea until the last minute. Family with Plankton and King NeptuneEdit Plankton's "wife" is his computer system Karen, even though neither of them fully consider the other their true soulmate, and their relationship is a very troubled one, although it was slightly mended by the events of the episode, Komputer Overload. Being a microscopic organism, Plankton's biological family numbers in the thousands. In "Plankton's Army", he recruits his entire family to help him steal the formula, thinking them all to be criminal masterminds like himself. However, much to his surprise, his family consists entirely of uneducated, red-necked hillbillies. These Relatives include (but are not limited to): Clem Plankton, Zeke Plankton, Rufus Plankton, Jeke Plankton, Billy Bob Plankton, Billy Jim Plankton, Billy Billy Bo Willy Banana Fanna Fo Filly Plankton, Doug Plankton, Ennis Plankton, and Rainchild Plankton, the only ones named. Plankton has two known ancestors. One is the evil wizard Planktonamor, who lived during medieval times and appeared in "Dunces and Dragons". Another is Dead Eye Plankton, a wealthy citizen who attempted a hostile takeover of Bikini Gulch but was defeated by Sheriff SpongeBuck SquarePants. Dead Eye Plankton lived during the Wild-West era and appeared in "Pest of the West". Video gamesEdit Plankton appears in virtally all SpongeBob-related video games, usually as a major antagonist. * SpongeBob Series (Video Games)Edit ''SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Krabby Patty''Edit Plankton kidnappsGary and makes SpongeBob do various tasks for him ''SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge''Edit Plankton makes a cameo when SpongeBob finds his time machine. He tells him to refill it before he brings it back. ''SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month''Edit Plankton appears on the bus ride to Rock Bottom. SpongeBob later helps him make an advertisement for The Chum Bucket. ''SpongeBob squarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom''Edit Plankton creates an evil army of robots to take over Bikini Bottom, but he forgets to make the robots obey him, causing his creations to run loose all over Bikini Bottom. Plankton uses SpongeBob, who is convinced that he is the cause of the robotic invasion, to get rid of the robots (while role-playing with Patrick), which are lead by a bigger robotic version of Plankton. Plankton told spongeBob that the robots kicked him out of the Chum Bucket, and the hero falls for the villains' lies and agrees to help him get back into the Chum Bucket. In the PC version for the game, after SpongeBob and Patrick go see Plankton who reveals to be behind the robotic invasion, Patrick fools around with the robot controls turning the machine off. Plankton told them that, that was going to be his next idea. After the heroes leave, Plankton tries to tell them that he'll be back. *In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Game, Plankton is the main antagonist, reprising his role from the movie. *In SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!, Plankton appears as a playable character. In the game, he uses a robotic suit to act in the auditions (the parts that are played). Also, the "Captive" role, as well as the auditions for it, take place in the Chum Bucket. *In SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab, Plankton is one of 3 playable characters, as well as the final boss of the game. He enlarges a Krabby Patty to massive size, only to have it come to life and begin chasing him. Eventually, Plankton enlarges himself to gigantic size, and begins rampaging across the city in pursuit of the giant patty. He's eventually defeated and reverted to his original size by Patrick, who was playing as his alter-ego Starfish Man. *In SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge, Plankton has a brief cameo, in which he yells at SpongeBob for stealing his time machine ("Blast you, SpongeBrat! You have found my secret time machine! Well, whatever you do, make sure you fill it up before you bring it back!"). * Nicktoons SeriesEdit ''Nicktoons Racing''Edit Plankton appears as the main antagonist. Wanting to win a reward of Krabby Patties, Plankton invites SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, Ickis, Angelica Pickles, Stimpy and several other Nicktoons to compete in various races.Not wanting to be discovered Plankton rides in a black car, and stays inside never revealing himself to the point where is called Mystery Rider. At the end of all challenges Plankton is discovered and does not win. ''Nicktoons Unite!Edit Plankton is one of the villains who compose The Evil Syndicate, the main antagonists of the game. He was charged to harvest energy out of the jellyfishes in Jellyfish Fields for the Doomsday Machine the Syndicate was building, making changes to the Chum Bucket to make it a factory. He also began to kidnapp citizens of Bikini Bottom (including Patrick, and Mr. Krabs) who didn't go along with his plans. However, the group of heroes assembled by Jimmy Neutron, SpongeBob SquarePants included, managed to free all the jellyfish and defeat Plankton at the Chum Bucket. He retreated to Retroville where he tried to destroy the heroes along with his fellow Syndicate members. But even that failed as his shield was turned off and he was defeated again by SpongeBob. InventionsEdit *Hypno-Pod: Hypnotizes jellyfish to be slaves as seen in the online game ''Plankton's Pernicious Plot. *Time Machine: Seen in SuperSponge *Mind Control Bucket Helmets:Control's the mind of fish and turns them into Plankton's slaves.Seen in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie." *High-Powered Mechanical Bio Arm: Opens anything - revealed but malfunctioned in the episode, "Best Frenemies." *Enlargetron: Makes things bigger, seen in Creature from the Krusty Krab. *Robo-Krabs: Robot version of Mr. Krabs, Seen in Imitation Krabs, Operation Krabby Patty, New Leaf, and Spy Buddies. *The switch-lives-just-to-know-what-it's-like-o-microfier. Seen in "The Algae's Always Greener". *New computer inventions, seen in "Komputer Overload". {}the dispictulator: a freeze ray plankton used in Creature from the Krusty Krab. *Brain-Powered Sponge-Robot: A robot modeled after SpongeBob that runs on brains. *K.A.R.E.N.: Robot Computer/Wife that can analyze anything. She is mobile. She can also create holographic food. *Pat-Bot: Built with a paddle ball, pogo stick, razor blade, and metal claws. *Many more shown throughout the series. *Duplicatotron 3000: A machine that creates seemingly endless amounts of robot soldiers. Seen in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom. FearsEdit Plankton is afraid of whales, enough to go insane. The reason is because a pod of whales ate his ancestors (also because whales eat plankton). PlansEdit List of Plankton's Plans TriviaEdit *A running gag is that in many episodes he appears in (including the movie), he gets squished. *It was revealed in one episode that Plankton is not actually green, his outfit is. Karen removes the green and we see an underwear clad pink plankton embarrased of his nakedness. He also has a rack with identicle green suits. *Plankton is left handed. *Plankton appears in the "United Plankton Pictures" logo. *Interestingly, although his name is "Plankton," he bears more resemblance to the real-life class of Organisms, Copepoda (Cyclops), which feed on phytoplankton. Do note that plankton are known to come from a different Kingdom than Copepods. *Despite all of Plankton's schemes, he has only been arrested two times, in [http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/The_SpongeBob_SquarePants_Movie The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie] and Krabby Road (he escaped from the cops in "Goo Goo Gas"). *Plankton should be able to remember the Krabby Patty Secret Formula from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, although Stephen Hillenburg said that chronologically, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is the last part of the series. And also, he could have been in jail for long enough to forget and want to get the formula again. *He was called "Shelly" in SpongeBob's Last Stand. *Plankton is college educated, which has become a running gag throughout the series, as he would usually shout, "Eye went to college!!!!!!!!!!!!!" while pointing at his eye as a pun when Mr. Krabs foiled him. *Steven Hillenburg say that chronologically the Spongebob Squarepants Movie is the last episode. However, in the movie Plankton says he's never had a customer, but in Chum Caverns and Chum Bucket Supreme, he has had at least, and usually more than his only competition, the Krusty Krab. *Plankton is afraid of whales in "One Coarse Meal", but not in "The Algae's Always Greener." *Out of his whole family, he seems to be the smartest, as his family is shown to be quite clueless and unintelligent. *His family is made up of hillbillies (or what they appear to be), and he appears to have forgotten their stereotype after all these years, as in their episode, he believes they are "criminal masterminds" and when he sees them, he is shocked and says "I've been away from home longer than I thought." It is possible that after this, he was disgusted by their stupidity, and possibly taught them to be smarter. *He real name is revealed in "Plankton's Army". *According to the TV movie "Truth or Square", Plankton has made a thousand three failed attempts to steal the formula. *At 2 inches tall, Plankton is actually gigantic for his kind. They, of course, did that to make viewers see him on the screen. *Plankton actually should be half the size of Spongebob, as Spongebob is 4 inches tall. *In "Plankton!", Plankton has a lab, which is just a real Labrador. *In later episodes, when Spongebob holds Plankton in his hand, he's bigger or Spongebob's hand is smaller (compare "Plankton!" with "Single Cell Anniversary" or "The Main Drain"). *In "The Main Drain", Plankton is unusually bigger than other episodes. *He and Mr. Krabs is the only in their family to ever make friends with each other, their predecessors are enemies. *In several relatively recent episodes, the inside of his mouth was purple. But that was corrected back to red in later episodes. *Early in the series, Plankton is considered the primary villain of the series. Later, as Krabs becomes more dramatically greedy and Plankton becomes less dramatically evil, the role of the main villain of the series becomes more debatable. *Plankton is assumed, by many, to be just as old as Mr. Krabs. This is understandable seeing as how they both knew each other since birth, which was noted in Friend or Foe. But it is possible that this is ignored in later episodes. *Plankton has inventions for equipment in contrast to Mr. Krabs' spy technology. *Plankton is left-handed.